Former President Barack Obama described President Donald Trump‘s ban on three news outlets from the White House as “unimaginable,” when he recently spoke at Colgate University.
“My imagination could not foresee some of the stuff that’s going on right now,” Obama said. He then asked the audience to picture the reverse, saying, “I’m trying to think what would have happened if I had said, ‘You know what, Fox News? You’re out of here.’”
Those remarks brought laughter and applause. Obama followed with, “It’s unimaginable.” He added, “But the point I’m making here is: If you have a certain cohort – let’s call it 30 to 35 percent of the country right now – which thinks that’s OK, well, what that means is we have not developed the kind of understanding of what democracy requires. And we’ve got to shore that back up.”
Trump announced a White House ban on CNN, MS Now and Politico
On Friday, Trump said journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico would no longer be allowed into the White House. He labeled the organizations “fake news.” Trump has been urged to lift the ban, even by a Fox News correspondent.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, announcing the ban.
On Saturday morning, reporters from the three outlets were denied entry to the White House and had their press passes taken, according to The Independent. Trump has also publicly humiliated reporters, such as when he told CNN’s Kristen Holmes to be quiet during a White House exchange.
The outlets said they would fight the decision. Trump has indicated the ban could later cover other organizations, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. After Trump returned to the White House last year, he barred The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One because the news organization would not use the name he ordered for the Gulf of Mexico. He directed that it be called the Gulf of America. The dispute led to an ongoing court fight.
In Trump’s first term, the White House took away the hard pass held by then-CNN reporter Jim Acosta after a heated exchange at a news conference. A federal judge later required that the pass be restored. A hard pass speeds access to the White House grounds. Tighter eligibility rules came afterward.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise backed Trump on ABC‘s This Week on Sunday. Scalise said, “I don’t think we’ve had a president that’s been more open to the press…but he wants a free and fair press.” Scalise also said former President Joe Biden “removed the press credentials from over 400 different agencies.”
Host Jonathan Karl disputed that account. Karl said, “So, first of all, that’s actually not true about Biden. They -the 400 individual reporters who had credentials – did not reapply. There was only one that was actually denied a credential, and all of those who didn’t reapply were allowed to come in. They were not banned from the White House.”
Published: Sep 21, 2026 06:20 am